Bristol
by Tremble Wolf
Summary: Follow Captain Merick and crew, and Charles Dickens their AI as they unravel an ONI mystery from the ground up. Who would think to open pandora's box? And who is the ghost in the machine? There are NO sexual themes. Does Mendicant just want Atonement?
1. Chapter 1

* * *

_Gas-Giant Gliese 876 d - "Entropa"_

_July 7th 2553_

_Aboard ONI Prowler: 07SJ-329H0: "Bristol"_

**_Pandora's Box  
_**

Captain "Tandem" Merick lightly tapped his fingers on the arm of his command chair, his eyes focused on NAV officer Jenny Wilson as she gave him a silent "thumbs up."

"We're all clear sir, ready to drop back into normal space." She had blue eyes, and long brown hair tied into a bun that was hidden because of her navy hat.

"Alright, Davidson, take us in quietly." Captain Merick ordered and tensed even before the actual seamless drop occurred. Stars burst into view from the blackness outside the view-port and a large copper(II)nitrate crystal colored gas-giant filled half the view; like liquid lapis lazuli. There were twenty moons and natural satellites that orbited the giant, and from their entrance vector they could see three dead rocky moons, and a small cluster of debris that was swept into a disk-like ring in-between the moons.

Merick toggled the com. to his engineer, a bead of sweat on his right eyebrow. "How long till slipspace generators are charged?"

"It will be ready in fifteen minutes." Came the stoic reply.

He turned off the com. and addressed the crew, "Okay, so, the listening-and-research post on the fourth moon has been silent since 38 hours ago. Bring us in so we can observe the station."

His crew busied themselves in as much as they could do, especially considering they each were limited to one 'job', though in such a small vessel they often found themselves doing the work of multiple crew members. The Prowler slipped over to the dusty ring and weaved a path through it so that they were in the same orbital distance as the moon. "Increase orbital velocity and bring us to the moon."

"Yes sir." Fingers typed in commands furiously and tension filled the room.

"Captain, I have found an E-band signal on repeat coming from one of the spy satellites embedded in its RAM-drive." The computerized voice of the ship's AI hailed the captain, the visual form showing an old-looking man in a brown tweed English suit with a dark wooden cane in one hand and a pipe in the other; he twirled his cane while idly puffing away.

"Play it."

"I'm sorry sir, but will not be possible, it appears to be a text sent on a burst transmission every five minutes..."

"Put it on the forward display." Merick silenced the AI by interrupting.

"You aren't interested?"

"Not particularly, now put it on the forward screen Dickens." Merick rolled his eyes, AI's could be inconceivably annoying and still be vital to the running of a ship; especially when they are so nonchalant and casual about...everything.

"Right away sir."

A garbled text appeared on the screen, it was a mix of English, numbers, logic problems, Greek letters, and mathematical formulas filled with derivations, integrations and more: all-in-all it was indecipherable. The crew tried turning their heads, looking at it upside down, and trying out the most common cipher codes: and once again it was unreadable.

"Dickens, I want you to focus on figuring out what this says."

"But sir, there are no clues as to how I should approach the problem, I will have to try each encryption key in existence and when they probably don't work I will have to stare at it for hours until the next hallucination from my diet brings me the revelation I need to solve it."

Merick raised his eyebrows, Dickens had never complained about anything before; this must be some problem indeed. "Fine, save the file and maybe we can find some clues as to what it means."

"Sounds good Captain, I will coordinate our approach to the lunar installation." The AI "bugged out" his holographic form dissipated in a puff of pipe smoke.

"Jared," Merick hailed the weapons officer. "Warm up the archer pods just in case."

"Right away sir." Jared Hansen had a scruffy face left unshaven due to their hard schedule, and his normally energetic brown eyes were dulled with a circle of black and bags under his eyes.

"ETA one minute." Jenny announced.

"Captain, it appears that the composite functions form some kind of prefix; like some kind of program, or system." Dickens noted aloud.

"You know I can't understand all the mathematical jargon that you spout, so please keep it to a minimum." Merick groaned. "Jared check the radar, are we in clear ether?"

"Yes sir, no activity in the form of motion, or radio either." Jared answered a split second later.

One minute had passed, and the black hull of the Prowler grazed the atmosphere of the moon and descended into a close orbit. "Jenny, keep us in a geosynchronous orbit over the installation, and Dickens, scan the area."

"Yes sir." For some reason, whenever the AI was asked to do something at the same time as someone else, he always chose to give the exact same response at the exact same time as the other person; so the AI and officer Jenny both replied at the same time.

"We are set sir." Jenny stated, almost a whisper even though it was easily heard in the dark interior.

"Captain, there is major geological activity on the moon's surface, it appears that a fault-line has been triggered near the base." Dickens reviewed the file on the installation. "It's a security measure sir, to help erase the evidence of their presence, and to make it look like a natural section of the moon."

"So much for tactical nukes." Merick sighed. "We have to salvage a raging volcano."

"Actually sir, it has not yet destroyed the entirety of the structure; as you are aware this gas-giant is inside the habitable zone of this star, and several moons including this one have plentiful reserves of water..." The AI was cut off.

"Skip the intro, or it won't last!"

"Actually sir, it appears that most of the installation will survive, the truth is that this is mostly just being buried by the lava, because most of the installation was built into a deep underground sea."

"Our entrance will still be blocked." Merick hissed.

"No it won't, several unforeseeable events have caused the magma to flow around the main entrance, so it is only a matter of time before... oh my..."

"What's happening? Show me!" Merick powered up his view-screen.

"Another deep fault has triggered secondary tremor; the station is sinking below the ocean and lava is cooling over the gap."

"Send a message to the ONI brass, tell them the station is submerged and unreachable." The Captain sighed and stood to crack his back with satisfying 'pops'.

"I'll program a slipspace probe to deliver the message; and at this point obeying Cole protocol is no longer necessary." Dickens complied.

"Oh, and be sure to send a copy of the emergency broadcast, maybe that's all they wanted in the first place."

"What will you do until you get an answer?"

"Davidson, pilot this ship into the debris field and match us to its intrinsic velocity. I want us to be dead in the water."

"Yes sir." The pristine black ship glided back away from the moon and into the closest ring of dust and rock, she nosed her way into a section of the ring and slowly adjusted to the "flow of traffic." The dust and rocks billowed around the spacecraft and were drawn to its microgravity and clung loosely around its surface. The ship blended perfectly with the dull brown and gray, and was unrecognizable.

"Captain, we have an A-1, that is, a 20% detection rating." Dickens announced. "For all intents and purposes we are in clear ether."

"Very good, bridge crew is dismissed to quarters for an eight hour period." The Captain relayed this order over the com. and added. "I want the ship powered to minimum, and the slipspace generators ready for anything."

Dickens watched as the bridge was emptied and sighed, or at least he made the closest thing to a sigh that an AI could. It was kind of odd really, that a ship like this would have such a high level ship-board AI. He often pondered what his 'life' would have been like if he were given a carrier; alas, there were so few ships left that even though many AI had died, there weren't even combat vessels for them.

He pondered various areas of the file he had received and started to probe it with disinterest. Lines of code flashed away from his hologram; it was pretty entertaining even for him that when he was processing information its physical representation was him smoking, and now his hologram seemed to be surrounded by vaporous clouds. He turned it over and over, and finally managed to form the 'problem' into a cube. He stood there on the hologram and grinned; this was the most intricate Chinese puzzle-box ever made, mostly because it was made entirely out of words, phrases, math problems and more eccentricities.

Dickens set his cane on an imaginary rack and bit down on the end of his pipe so as to be able to use both "hands," and pushed one small bit of code. Time flashed by, even for an AI who worked on the level of microseconds, and when the Captain and the crew returned to "leisurely" duties had was thirty percent done opening the package.

Merick sat down in his command chair and watched the hologram of the very active AI, he watched as his holographic hands moved with incredible speed pushing pieces to different lengths, sliding panels, and turning a small box over and over in his hands.

"Did you find something Dickens?" He asked.

"Yes and no." He replied as he continued his work. "The message was a puzzle meant to encode whatever the message _really _was so it could reach ONI headquarters. It is so incredibly complex that it has taken me eight standard hours to get 31.47% unlocked. But at least I've managed to figure what the problem is, so it is only a matter of time before the message is delivered."

"You do know that we might not be cleared to access that information don't you?" Merick implied.

"At this rate the curiosity factor has won out; maybe when I've opened the box I will be satisfied to give it unopened to ONI." He smiled and continued working, a small dial on the corner of the screen showing his progress at 32%.

* * *

Slipspace is known for its anomalous nature, with its eddies and currents, and bubbles. And it may come as no surprise that with the updated engines on the probe, and after navigating the currents with minute precision, the probe came safely into orbit around Earth. On the Continent known as Australia, ONI is known for having their place; the "Hive." And inside the Hive in one of its many sub-levels there was an office with a withered old man in a black uniform discussing with a hushed voice something of importance.

The one recieving the discussion was young, new to adulthood, and he had his arms folded in front with a pervasive calm despite his age. He seemed to be a natural spook, easily of the caliber of section III, and he proffered a manila envelope with the seal of ONI section III. "This just came back from the "GLADIATOR" mission." He let go of the envelope and slicked his short blond hair back into a perfect combed and gelled look.

"Hmm..." The old man, the head of section III examined the file. "And you haven't opened "Pandora's Box" yet?"

"No sir, we are waiting for your order."

"Alright, I'll do it, you are dismissed." The head of section III sent him away and dimmed the fluorescent lights of his office before triggering an electronic-countermeasures switch under his desk. His room became airtight and an EMP zapped the 'inexpensive' equipment in the room; he could replace all that for this secrecy. When he was sure he was in the clear, he pressed a hidden button on the frame of a painting on his left wall and watched with satisfaction as the painting became a holoscreen. He then slipped his hand into the envelope he had received and found a small chip capable of holding an AI, and pressed it into a slot on the frame of the painting.

The image of the puzzle-box appeared, and on the front face of the cube there appeared to be one place where he could push a piece aside. But oddly enough he merely spoke one word: "Pandora."

A voice issued from a speaker that was also built into the picture frame. "Pass-code confirmed, retinal and voice scans confirmed; welcome."

The box magically opened and an AI appeared on the screen. "Sadly this is just a message, but if you have received this then I am recovered. The project was successful, though when we tried to shut down our laboratories there was an accident and the main reactor went critical. this triggered the failsafe and set off several buried tactical nukes that were set in an old fault line."

He sighed.

"The mission is a success, but all the personnel, I was able to escape by transferring myself into the E-band satellite and locking myself into safety mode." She had wavy hair and seemed to wear an old Greek dress, though because of all the symbols it could have just been a figment of imagination. "You will have to retrieve my core from the satellite and then I will be able to give the results." The AI disappeared and the holoscreen went blank.

* * *

_July 8th 2553_

_Aboard "Bristol" orbiting Entropa_

Merick was no longer on the bridge, instead he was in his quarters resting, his arms were tucked behind his head and his eyes bored through the dull ceiling. _"This mission just keeps on getting weirder and weirder." _His thoughts echoed in his skull. _"A puzzle-box, why, and what could be in it?"_

"Captain, I am sorry to disturb you." Dicken's voice interrupted.

"It's not a problem Charles." Merick replied to the AI using his 'nickname.'

"Our probe has been sent back with new orders; we are to capture the satellite and personally deliver the hard drive back to the Hive." The apologetic tone had disappeared and now only a casual business attitude took its place.

"Have you finished the puzzle?"

"You will be pleased to know that I am almost complete; I will require another two hours." Casual also vanished and excitement dripped from the words.

_"Nothing like a puzzle for an AI" _Merick thought dryly. "I'm coming up to the bridge, summon the crew."

He rolled off his bunk and stalked up to the bridge, by the time he arrived the crew were all at their stations watching him expectantly.

"Bring us back to the moon, we have to nab the satellite." He sat in his chair and observed how smoothly they worked, stress relieved after their break. The ship's thrusters fired and brought it out of the debris field, streaking behind it a trail of particles drifted eerily. Pretty soon the moon loomed up, and they pulled alongside the satellite, it seemed a little beat up but it was all natural because of the dust and pebbles.

Merick stolidly walked down the hall and into the airlock, he then prepped for his space-walk. Once his suit was locked tight he attached a tether to himself and tied it to the bulkhead.

"Okay, close the inner lock and depressurize." He ordered into his com.

The outer door snapped open as soon as all atmosphere had been sucked out of the room and back into the ship; because of this, Merick did not go flying out into space but merely stepped out. He pushed off the bulkhead and glided away in the zero-G environment in a straight vector toward the satellite. "Three, two, one..." He mentally counted down until he lightly hit the satellite and clung to it, he didn't have very many tools to take out the hard drive; so he roped his tether around it and began to pull himself and the construct back into the ship's open outer airlock.

He brought it inside and sighed as the door closed around him and air rushed into the room.

"You're clear sir." Dickens' voice hailed him.

He put away his suit and half-dragged the satellite into the engineering room where he stretched his back and wiped his brow from exertion.

"If you can take out the hard drive, plug it into the main computer and I can access it." Dickens suggested.

"Why?" The engineer demanded.

"Mostly because I opened the puzzle." He remarked smugly.

"Well?" Merick groaned.

"I'll keep it a surprise." Dickens silenced and watched as they pulled out the hard drive and hooked it up to the computer.

"Greetings," Dickens began, "You must be Pandora; I loved your puzzle." Up on the bridge the holotank had two figure standing there; one excited old man, and one annoyed girl.

"Glad you liked it, now can we get back to ONI? This is important." She crossed her arms.

"You didn't even ask my name!" Dickens balked, horrified. "I guess you weren't so great after all."

* * *

_A/N: Sorry I haven't been active for a while, but I think I've finally got something for you guys. This is going to be a mix of action, mystery, and I hope it will be fun. Thanks._

_-Tremble Wolf  
_


	2. Chapter 2

* * *

_Gas-Giant Gliese 876 d - "Entropa"_

_July 7th 2553_

_Aboard ONI Prowler: 07SJ-329H0: "Bristol"_

The two AIs were still arguing, mostly because Dickens expected a better relationship, and because Pandora was annoyed.

"I was supposed to be opened only by the head of section III!" She accused.

"If you had been in my position, I am quite sure you would have done the same." Dickens countered. "I only wanted to save a damsel in distress."

"And _you _are nothing like your namesake except for your ancient moth-infested clothing." She insulted, her hologram pushing him back with an accusatory finger.

"I only wanted to help." He repeated.

"I didn't need helping!" She fumed.

Merick entered the bridge and groaned as soon as he noticed the bickering. "Can you two please stop fighting and introduce the newcomer?"

"This is..." Dickens began before being cut off.

"Hello Captain, I am Pandora Class A shipboard AI serial number PN0259RA" She bowed.

"Great to meet you, is there any chance that ONI would let you stay here and then Dickens can leave?" The Captain rudely joked.

"I take offense sir!" Dickens objected. "Can I please have some more sir, you jolly well can not! The next time you come asking for favors you will be greatly disappointed!"

"Wait a minute," Merick sighed, seeing he had gone too far. "I didn't mean it."

"Then you should learn to mean what you say and say what you mean!"

"Cool it Chaz." Pandora rubbed her temples. "You're going to ruin my perfectly good day."

"Can I call you Pandy for short?" Dickens mocked. "Save the pandies, there's not enough bamboo!"

"Would you just shut it?" She yelled.

"And for the record, I'm not even sure your namesake exists." "Chaz" pouted. "Or ever existed."

"ENOUGH!" Merick cracked his neck, only then noticing that he seemed to have quite the habit. "Dickens go to your room."

He grumbled something about "The poor should go and die and reduce the surplus population," and then disappeared in a puff of smoke.

"I'm sorry Captain, I must assume that your AI has not informed you of the recent chain of events. Truth is, I am not aware of all the causes for there are more than a few anomalies. The fact remains that this ship must go back to Earth immediately; all the personnel of the station died during the incident." She sat down on a chair that appeared as she wished and folded her hands on her lap.

"Wilson, jump to Earth, now." Merick sat in his chair and watched as the already charged engines tore a hole into slipspace and began its FTL flight. The stars vanished from their view and they observed darkness of black and purple hues.

"How long till destination?" He asked NAV officer Jenny Wilson.

"Twelve hours." Her answer was cold and blank.

"Alright," He activated SHIPCOM and spoke glumly. "All crew report for cryo protocol."

"Sir?" Jenny raised an eyebrow.

"Dickens, coordinate with Pandora and bring us to Earth; I want us out of cryo an hour before we reach Earth."

"Yes captain." The dejected voice replied.

"I'll try my best captain." Pandora sighed, but she was still there sitting on a chair on the hologram.

Merick looked around, dull colored titanium-A plating composed most of the interior, and he sighed as he undressed and entered his "freezer." Darkness closed around his vision, his lungs felt heavy, his brain felt numb; and finally he was asleep.

Up in the empty bridge Dickens and Pandora stared at each other, their contest lasting a complete hour.

"Fine." Pandora gave in. "My curiosity would have gotten the better of me too." She breathed with relief as their fight ended.

"I'm glad." Dickens smiled. "But now, since we both know that we are on track, I will enter my "freezer."

The entire ship was silent, floating at faster than light and dead as a ghost ship.

* * *

_Earth: The Hive_

_ONI section III office:_

_July 9th 2553_

_1:00 AM_

"Sir!" Someone hailed the old man. "Got a whisper near Charon!"

"Meaning?" He raised an eyebrow.

"The Gladiator is in the dugout sir." The calm coded reply came back.

"Good, get her in here and get her debriefed ASAP, we have enough other problems to deal with so deal with this one immediately."

At his gruff tone the secretary ran off.

* * *

_Earth: In orbit_

_Aboard the "Bristol"_

_July 9th 2553_

_1:17 AM  
_

Steam poured around the cryogenics room, Merick coughed the thick fluid from his lungs and puked it onto the floor. His only comfort was that the fog shielded his nakedness from the other crew, and that he was shielded from theirs. Silently he showered and dressed and went back up to the bridge. He expected the usual entrance with the two AIs arguing but this time it seemed all was quiet, kinda.

"I think you should make the cube bigger." Dickens suggested.

"That cube could hold _me _inside of it, there is no need to make it any bigger." She defended.

"You should include more forms of cipher-text in it, quotes, events, mineral densities, and of course slipspace calculus equations." Dickens tipped.

"And while I like your ideas I don't have time to work on them right now; I have to prepare for a full debriefing."

"I sympathize, I really do." Merick added to the conversation.

"Good morning captain." The two AIs greeted him simultaneously and then glared at each other.

"Sir, I've got an incoming message from the Hive." Davidson at the OP-SCANNER station reported.

"Patch it through." Merick seated himself and grimaced.

"This line is secure, and here are your orders, deliver the satellite to our representative aboard the Pillar of Autumn." The line was cut unceremoniously.

"I thought that the Pillar of Autumn was sunk." Wilson mused.

"Actually this is a new vessel; a carrier." Pandora answered the question.

"We haven't had much time to build very many new ships so, this one must have been half-way complete during the war." Davidson suggested as he rubbed his chin in thought.

"Alright, well, we have our orders. Deliver Pandora into the Satellite and link up with the Pillar of Autumn." Merick ordered and waved good-bye to the new AI. "It was a pleasure."

She winked and then vanished.

"She's amazing." Dickens sighed.

"I heard that." A disembodied voice added. "Bye."

"We are abreast of the Pillar of Autumn captain." The AI returned to business.

"Davidson, hail the captain of the carrier and request permission to deliver the satellite."

"On it." The sound of rapid keystrokes filled the bridge. "Pillar of Autumn, this is ONI Prowler Bristol requesting permission for transference of cargo."

"This is the Pillar of Autumn, permission is granted, dock in hangar bay 2."

"Aye, aye." The Bristol zipped over to the carrier and into the open bay doors of the hangar. "Finally firm ground at last sir?"

"Not yet." The captain turned to Jared. "Help me deliver this to our contact." Jared followed him out of the bridge and into the engine room. Between the two of them, they were able to bring it onto the deck before a black-clad navy spook.

"Greetings." He grinned evilly, knowing just how much power he had and knowing also that he scared the crap out of people, and enjoyed that fact thoroughly.

"Are you the one with our next orders?" Merick asked without being intimidated, which is more than can be said for Lieutenant Commander Jared Hansen.

He nodded and handed over an envelope. "Your orders are inside, and I recommend that you get to work as soon as you get out of this hangar."

"No breaks?"

"No breaks."

They both nodded, their understanding mutual, and somehow also was the respect. The Spook turned tail and stalked powerfully out of the hangar, his expensive shoes clicking gleefully.

"That guy creeps me out sir." Jared shivered as he reentered the Prowler.

"As he should," Merick opened the envelope. "oh... my..."

"Captain?" Jared examined him, he just stopped all of a sudden.

"Follow me, if the pit in my stomach means anything I'll need you at your post before I know it."

"We going into a battle?"

"Sort of, we're going into an old battle ground." Merick walked into the bridge and looked over all the crew.

"Our new orders?" Lieutenant Wilson asked.

"Take us out of this hangar."

The bay doors parted, luckily the air had already been sucked out, so the ship slipped out and edged toward Pluto. At this point Dickens got fed up.

"I need a vector captain!" He demanded.

"Here." He plugged a small device into the hologram.

"Hold on, this might get bumpy." Dickens triggered the Shaw-Fujikawa-Covenant slipspace drives, and smiled as they entered the eleventh dimension. "Hold on." He scanned his files, sure enough there was a small puzzle box with his name engraved on it. But oddly it seemed that a short message scrolled around it with a timer. "Do not open until the timer reaches zero."

"Where are we going?" Davidson asked.

"We are going to the Ark." Dickens replied.

"What for?"

"The answer to the greatest question that ONI researchers have struggle with since its conception." Dickens quipped.

"And that is?"

"Who are the Forunners?"

"Oh, so they think there may be evidence on the Ark, and since only Humans have been able to work their mechanisms or be recognized they think we'll get answers." Davidson summed up.

"Yeah, pretty much." Dickens sighed, eying the box he had been left with waiting for the 237 hours and 20 minutes and 18 seconds to pass.

"How long till we reach the Ark?" Captain Merick asked of the AI.

"I'll wake you up and hour and a half before we drop; go to cryo." Dickens sullenly suggested.

"Crew dismissed." Merick didn't want to wait for who knew how long instead of cryo, so he entered his chamber and once again felt himself freeze.

* * *

_Outside the Milky Way Galaxy_

_The Ark_

_July 18th 2553 _

_9:23 AM_

Dickens looked at the huge spectacle, a wonder that it had not been more damaged, and an even greater wonder that the sentinels had set to repairing it. Even though, there were still huge pieces of the replacement "fortress world" or "ring world" were scattered around the Ark as if they had been moved there on purpose.

"Take us down to one of the buildings near the center of the ring and land. I get the feeling we'll have to do some exploration." Merick ordered, he had gotten out of cryo and hour ago and he whistled at the sight.

"I wish this was shore leave." Wilson muttered as they neared their LZ, crystal blue oceans flowed around the center of the Ark, and grass and trees and clouds made the place seem like a paradise.

Clouds and atmosphere rushed past them, ground flew up toward them, and finally tall metal buildings loomed around the ship. Dickens was very well accustomed to the ship and handled the final landing procedure so that they landed the ship perfectly on a large metal pad.

The air around them swirled with sentinels and they watched the ship warily. Suddenly a signal hacked into their SHIPCOM and a query was delivered.

"Why are you here Reclaimers?" The computerized voice was full of intelligence.

"Are you the monitor of this installation?" Merick asked in return.

"Indeed I am, I am Mendicant Bias." The tone of the answer was shocked. "I have contemplated your actions from your last visit and have approved; the Parasite has been eliminated, and the damage was minimal. The ends justified the means; we had to learn from the last time, and Guilty Spark could not understand the big picture."

"I am relieved." Merick stated, unsure of what to say. "Would it be permissible for us to access your data archives?"

"You will have to keep your construct inside this vessel, and be otherwise escorted by a few of my sentinels so you don't access any restricted files."

Merick stood. "Let's take a look around." He opened the doors and stepped out of his Prowler, light from the star the Ark orbited outside the galaxy filled his eyes, and the lushness of the flora was shocking.

"Sir?" Jenny Wilson stood behind his left shoulder, she looked confused. "What are your orders?"

"Sidearms only; I don't think that the "Mendicant Bias" would appreciate our unpacking a lot of weapons. I only want you and Jared to come with me on this trip; everyone else keep the engine running." Merick adjusted his cap so that the glare of light wouldn't blind his eyes and started down a slight slope to where a large Forunner balcony jutted out over a cliff.

One of the sentinels swooped around to face him. "Down there is a manual access to the teleportation grid."

"Are you going to program our destination?" Jared asked.

"I'm sorry, I do not feel I should enable you so; you were not chosen as the reclaimers merely so you could have everything for free." The voice of Mendicant Bias chuckled. "That would be too easy, you need to prove that you have earned it."

"But didn't we wipe out the Flood?" Commander Wilson rolled her eyes.

"You wiped out the Flood infection; but that does not mean that all the Flood have been wiped out. You see, my creators were fascinated by the Flood; a somewhat morbid fascination at that. In any case however, they saw fit to preserve specimens on most of their installations, like the rings for example." The AI dragged on even more. "Installation 05 was most likely not emptied of its infestation, I have known the Gravemind through many years, and he most likely understood the risks enough to keep a presence on the ring that bound him for so long."

"Wait, you mean that there might be more Flood?" Merick stopped abruptly.

"While they may be consumed by a desire to feed; it is highly unlikely they would abandon a world after subduing it." Mendicant Bias was very amused at this. "Would you?"

"No, I suppose not; I guess I just underestimated their intelligence." He sighed. "Now, if you're not going to take us to your library directly, how are we supposed to find it?"

"I would recommend that you make your way to the Silent Cartographer, but be warned, your ship will have to land some distance from the structure and you will have to move on foot." The Sentinel who had been speaking whipped up and guided them back to their ship. "I'm sure that you can find the Cartographer; after all, if you can't I don't think you would be worthy."

Jenny sat down in her chair, as did the Captain and Hansen. "Captain, what happened?" Dickens asked. "Are we being evicted?"

"Evicted nothing, we have to find our own way." Merick growled, knowing somehow the AI had been right.

"Captain, based on previous Forunner information, I have found a structure that may be the cartographer." Dickens beamed, if that is possible for a program.

"Take us in." The ship lifted and flew off toward one of the arms of the installation, stretching concave and out.

"Sir, what are we going to do when we get there?" Jared shrugged.

"Mendicant Bias only said that Dickens was not allowed inside the library; I am sure that we could bring him into the Cartographer." The Captain smiled.

"A little risky don't you..." Jared was about to continue but at a shrewd glare from the Captain he shut up.

As they neared their destination, the flora on the ground became more scarce and turned into a long desert of towering sand dunes and rocks and Forunner buildings. They peered out at the desert, noticing that purple scrap metal and twisted pieces of titanium and carbon fiber were half-buried in the sane.

"Looks like we found the battle grounds." Davidson stated glumly.

"Sir, we can't get much closer like this; we're gonna have to land." Wilson swung around in her chair and started bringing the ship down. "I've found a good spot, it's a wide plateau with stone tunnels and debris but it should work."

Dickens reviewed the information from the "Forward Unto Dawn" after its front half had arrived at Earth. "This is where Keyes' ship landed during the assault on Truth." He noted aloud. "Should suit our needs perfectly."

They all stepped out into the sand and noticed irregularly shaped piles and mounds.

"Did anyone pack a Warthog?" Merick asked. "Because if you did not, I think that I've found us a ride." He bent over and uncovered the mangled ruins of a battered Warthog.

"Forget that idea." Wilson cursed.

"Hey, want some of my water?" Jared practically shoved his canteen in her face.

"No thanks, I've got my own." She sighed and began to follow the Captain who had already started walking toward the yawning tunnel at the end of the plateau.

"That's good, you know, I was just wanted to make sure you hadn't forgotten." He rushed to meet her and match her pace. "You know, maybe this isn't a bad thing; I could work on my tan!"

"You need it." She replied frostily, which somehow went unnoticed by her companion.

"It's kinda cool, just you and me and the Captain; trudging through a desert and searing hot sand with only a little water and a long way to go."

"Yeah, just imagine how cool it will be when we keel over and die from talking all our water into the air and then see how cool it will be to find our bones bleached under the sun!" She took a gulp from her canteen. "Now just follow me and walk quietly, you'll die faster if you talk too much."

"Die faster, you honestly think we're going to die out here? There's no one here but us!" He leaned back and laughed into the air, as he looked into the sky by accident, he noticed something screaming through the atmosphere and inbound on their direction. "Hey!" He shook Jenny by her shoulders. "Did you just see that?"

"See what you perv?" She slapped him on the face and looked up to see a Covenant scout cruiser crash into a hard landing several kilometers north and another kilometer thirty degrees west of north. "Oh..." She ran up to catch the Captain. "Sir, we've got a problem."

Merick just turned and smiled at her. "We got here first." He pulled his M6D magnum out of his holster and cocked it with a smooth trained motion. "Let's go see if there are any survivors."

"With just our pistols?" Jared paled.

"The ship is a klick away now, do you honestly think we have the time to go back and grab an assault rifle?"

"Well yeah, but..."

"All we have to do and catch scout them out, maybe we could even steal a few souvenirs." Merick started out again.

"We're just humans." Jenny complained.

"Are we? You bet we are!" The Captain whirled at her fuming. "You are only as powerful as you think you are, once you lose hope you lose the war! The only way to win is to believe that you can. Are you a good shot, do you think you can shoot a can off the hood of a truck? Well this is no different, those Brutes are probably all dazed, and we have the element of surprise."

"I'm sorry captain, I will do my best." She stared at the shifting sand that blew between her feet.

"That's better, now follow me." He started out again, his index finger twitching with hunger for death.


	3. Chapter 3

* * *

_The Ark_

_July 18th 2553 _

_11:57 AM_

_Near the Silent Cartographer_

Cliffs of dull brown stone loomed on both sides, narrowing into a slight passage that grew closer near the top. The tunnel was hidden from the sun's light and the three humans stalked down the tight the slit above their path they could just see smoke drifting upwards, and as they neared the end of their cover they began to hear the sounds of jiralhanae voices.

"Beratus, what happened?" A golden armored brute asked harshly, the sound of a fist hitting flesh and a low grunt signifying that one alien had been punched.

"I am sorry my lord, we must have hit some EM interference..."

"Silence!" Heavy footsteps pounded near their position, and they stayed hidden by pure luck as the wind blew the foul air in their direction and not in the brutes'.

Merick crouched closer behind his rock and watched with a slightly better angle.

"An Unngoy slave could serve me better than you; you have failed completely and your life is forfeit." There was a swooshing sound as a heavy metal object was swung harder and faster than it ought to.

The unfortunate brute leaped out of the way. "I have done nothing wrong, you are a poor leader and I challenge you to prove yourself!" In his vain hope for life, the inferior bade his superior to drop the hammer and come at him with his fists.

"I will crush your head and keep it as a trophy!"

It appeared that they were the only two remaining brutes; and the several surviving Unngoy, three in all, began to whimper and hid behind the wreckage of the scout ship.

The Brute captain grasped the neck of the minor and squeezed, his life slowly seeping from his face.

"Now." Merick rolled out of hiding and popped two shots into the back of the jiralhanae captain's skull before snapping another three into the face of the dying minor. Jared and commander Wilson stepped around the ship and aimed their weapons at the unarmed grunts, their weapons having been crushed in the crash.

"No kill I human!" The front one cried. "Please..." the last word turned into a moan and the grunt sat and groveled in the dirt.

"Get up!" Jenny demanded. "You don't have to die, but if you play any games I will kill you without a thought."

"We will obey." The lead grunt wore the veteran red armor and he scratched his nose and adjusted his methane breather mask when he realized he might live. "We will serve human masters now."

"Why is your ship here?" Jared asked in a friendly tone, though he still held his pistol ready.

"We were sent by the hierarchs to see if the Ark was not destroyed; and here we stand." The yellow grunt that answered got a glare from its commander and sighed.

Merick walked over and found the two flight officers aiming at the grunts. "Unngoy," For it was now general knowledge the actual names of the Covenant species, "You may go into your ship and salvage what gear you may for your survival and then come with us. We will treat you well, if you are willing to come with us you can live, and if not then you will have to die."

On scout ships the grunts usually were allowed more freedom of choice and leadership and enterprise; so it wasn't going to far to suppose that these grunts could make this choice.

"Go with you or die?" One asked. "Me thinks we should go."

The red grunt placed his hand on the shoulder of the one who spoke. "Here, I talk better human, and I are the leader."

"That's okay, you can all talk as long as you want to." Jenny smiled as she realized that these little creatures really wanted to be able to speak, and instead of having to torture them all they had to do was make them comfortable. "We humans believe that everyone has the right to speak what they want or believe; doesn't matter if they are right or wrong."

"I never heard that." The red one squinted at them to try to tell if he could detect any deception; but no, their scent and voices and faces had not changed. "Fine, we will follow you."

"Now, we cannot allow you to have weapons, but you still need to follow us." Merick grinned and stepped inside the shipwreck. Purple panels of metal hung from the ceiling along with cables and plasma conduits, coolant dripped across the floor, and down the short hall there appeared to be a storage bay. "Are your extra rations and methane tanks in here?"

"Silly human," The red one laughed. "Follow Za'na, I show you." He opened the door using his immense strength and pulled out equipment for a methane tent, and extra tanks, and breather masks, and armor just in case. He continued to rummage while humming a slight twelve-tone tune. "The food!" He declared at last.

The three other yellow grunts all helped clear the area and bring out the supplies. When they finished, they all posed in front of their work and began to set up a camp. Merick sighed when he noticed they were getting ready to stay.

"No, no, no, this is not a good place to set up a camp." He pointed out the numerous geological reason why they shouldn't camp on top of a tunnel, right under a soft bluff, right next to a canyon, and with a stream running parallel to the crashed ship.

"We can't carry all this, we would have to abandon all the emergency supplies." The shortest one, also in yellow, complained.

"You just say that cause you are a runt." Another one teased.

"No, they're right." Jared affirmed, and picked up a crate full of gear. "I'm sure though, that if we pitch in we can bring all that we need."

"That _they _need." Wilson laughed. "And do I look like I can run around with a bunch of methane tanks?"

"The female is right." Za'na the red grunt pointed. "But she can carry the food."

* * *

"Why do I always get these jobs?" Jenny propped her box on her knee and wiped the sweat from her eyes.

"This is good for you," Jared replied through his teeth, "Doncha know that working out makes you more attractive?"

"I thought working for the navy gave me that for free." She gained a new grip and continued trudging after the squat little grunts who dragged a long piece of metal piled high with goods.

"See human, up in the Forunner building we can rest!" Za'na declared, even though Merick was right next to him and could easily keep pace.

"Alright, we'll take a break on that terrace." As they neared it, they could see that the doors were cracked open, but there were no longer any signs of battle except for the broken door. And even though they had planned on taking a break, as soon as they reached the cool building they felt refreshed enough to keep moving. They filed in one side and out the other of the building and now faced a long sloping valley with Forunner walls on both sides.

The valley ran down to a cliff edge and a drop off, and in the middle of it there stood a rounded wedge-shaped building. It had an entrance on the front and the right and left sides, as well as ramps that ran along the sides and lead to a middle level terrace. Right below this there was also a small door.

"We leave our stuff here." One grunt dropped and curled into a ball in a corner to sleep.

"Alright, we are going to take a break." Merick slung his crate into a stack and began to organize their salvaged equipment, he blocked the doors and made sure the place was defensible using the sheets of metal and crates that the grunts had brought. He worked to unload the extra armor and food into sections before noticing that his crew was not presently in the building.

The grunts finished setting up a methane tent and began their sleep inside; apparently fully trusting the humans who had labored with them. Merick sighed and climbed up the long ramp to the roof and found his two officers sitting on the edge with their feet dangling over the side and idly bouncing their heels against the wall as they sipped from their near-empty canteens.

"...don't get it," Jenny examined the back of her hand for lack of anything else to occupy her mind. "Why do I pity them?"

"Because they were forced into being our enemies and have realized that they like us; I mean, how can you kill someone who likes you?" Jared answered, turning his head so he could see her face in perfect perpendicular profile, and his eyes drifted past her to see the captain sitting down as well.

"You have a point Hansen, but it happens, and sometimes by accident." He grinned.

"What do you mean sometimes?" He countered his captain's statement.

"When I was a kid," He watched the clouds, smiling as he noticed one of them looked like a bird, "I had this pet dog, her name was Libby, she was an excitable dog, and always seemed to be jumping on people. My friends didn't like her because she scared them, and more and more she began to enjoy that fear and started to play bite and then actually bite people."

"I think I can see where this is headed." Jared shared an amused look with Wilson.

"Anyway, one day she mauled one of my friends in the face and had to be put down; I always felt as if I had dealt the killing blow." Merick finished and glanced at their faces.

"We mean actual people." They said as one.

"You mean just humans or..."

"Everyone, not animals."

"I was a hard time in my life." He defended. "I was seven."

"Quiet, you'll wake the kids." Jenny mocked, meaning the napping Unngoy on the base level.

The sun slowly stretched over the horizon, and the land began to darken before they stood up and went down to wake their companions. The methane tent was turned off, and the grunt were groggily stepping from foot to foot in their armor in an attempt to stay awake.

Jenny bent her knees a little and placed her hands on them so she could see the grunts from their level. "I never learned your names." She said.

"It's too late for talk human, you never speak your names to we either." One of the tired yellow grunts complained in terrible English.

"Japat no be rude." Za'na chided.

"I be Japat." He replied without remorse in his voice.

"You sound like it, now come on, we have to get inside the main structure and explore." She waved a hand to bid them to come.

"What does you look for?" Japat wrinkled his nose, still not understanding what these humans were up to; just thankful he was allowed to live.

"We're looking for a map, that way we can leave the desert." She answered. "Now come on."

The four grunts waddled after her, comically trying to catch up with Jared and Merick as they climbed the long ramp up to the door in the hillside wall. The sane quickly lost its heat, the cool oddly refreshing for the grunts and spurred an intrinsic energy that woke them and excited them. "We coming human, slow down."

The ramp itself reached two stories before two smaller sequential ramps lead to the fourth level. The walls of the main structure were now apparent, and an unlocked door led inside the tower. The humans slipped inside and motioned for the grunts to wait until they had proved it was safe.

"It dark human, but me smell nothing!" Za'na quipped once he was inside. "There nobody here."

"Except us." Jared noted and took a left at the next intersection and face an open doorway. All blood and body traces were gone, the small room was empty and led even deeper. The group of seven continued on for about a half hour before they finally reach an open terrace with a console glowing with blue light.

"Master, look!" Japat pointed as a sentinel zipped forward and faced the captain.

"You have found the Cartographer, well done Reclaimer, but I must ask why you have taken such strange companions?" Mendicant Bias' smooth and quiet voice issued from the sentinel, and it seemed like a shame that it didn't have a better-looking physical speaker.

"We captured them from our enemies and have decided that they pose little risk." He replied.

"Well, as soon as you access the console and find that which you seek, I will take you and your ship relatively close to your objective."

Merick placed his hand on the pulsing blue panel and scrolled as best he could through the Forunner computer. "I don't know how to use this, can I get my AI to help me?"

"If you cannot read the words of my creators without help, I will not help you until _you _can. You are going to have to stay here and study the basics of language until you can tell me where the library is." Mendicant Bias chuckled at the indignant face Merick made. "This will be beneficial for you and your race, it is worth the time you spend."

The sentinel vanished as it sped away, and they all stood there in shock at their new assignment before they began their trek back.

"You don't become a Forunner expert overnight!" Merick kicked a wall in passing.

"This is a big test master, but I thought I heard your computer "beep" before it left." Hanat, one of the yellow grunts spoke up with courage.

Merick pulled out his personal PDA and found that his hard drive was fairly overloading with new information; and a message that still phased in and out on the screen.

_"This is a start to your education, share with your friends; if you are lost they might have to start where you left off."_

He growled and opened the first file, it was filled with Forunner letter and recordings of his own phonetic sounds next to it. "This is going to take a long time."

"A, makes the sound aw or ah." A recording spoke from the small built-in speakers.

"I'm going to hate this." Merick took point and brought them back to their camp outside the Cartographer, the four grunts happily entered their methane tent and took off their masks as soon as they were sure it was safe. He went back onto the top of the wedge-shaped structure and sat down with Hansen and Wilson, "We might as well get cracking on this."

They groaned as he began to play the list of sounds and show them the symbols.

"This is going to take us forever!" Jared ran his hands through his hair in despair.

"Well, I sent a copy of this information to Dickens, he will probably be able to help us." Merick stated, hoping it would sooth his and their annoyance. "He should be getting back to me soon."

"You know him, he'll most likely forget about us and focus on it, besides; can't you just upload it to your neural lace?" Jenny asked.

"The problem with that is that I could get brain damage from trying to overload it with a ton of information at once; for now it would just be easier in the long run to learn this the old fashioned way." He answered, and jumped when his com suddenly crackled.

"Captain, this is Dickens, I find this new data very interesting. Truth is, I'm sure that ONI would be very pleased with this alone if we returned." The AI's tone was very excited to say the least.

"Charles, we came here on a specific mission; we need to gain access to the archives and not just a few tidbits on Forunner language."

"But sir, this is a lot of information; I haven't even finished reading all the material." Dickens complained.

"Hey Dickens," Jenny put in, "Would it be bad to upload this kind of information into a neural lace?"

"This is a lot of tough material, you would have to let me upload this with precision and it would take a long time to put things in order." He answered coolly. "And that would be avoiding any permanent damage; _permanent, not temporary_." They almost could hear him smile. "You see, any one of you could go into a temporary coma or have nervous issues for a time even with my precautions; and I know that that would _not _be acceptable to you even if it would pass."

"Yes, we see..." They all pretended, just so he would stop talking on the subject.

"Here is what I recommend: come back to me, or just upload the phonetic figures. That way you would be able to at least read the sounds written all over the place. Then continue to study the language in your spare time and in a week upload the grammatical structure, and in a series of weeks upload segments of vocabulary." Dickens paused for their benefit before continuing. "The unfortunate part of this is that you will have to learn conversational Forunner language."

"I take it you don't think it is unfortunate?" Jared inquired.

"I think it is worth the time." It was a trite answer but true.

"Well we get it, could you help me program a loading software into my computer so I can transmit this information in packages to my neural lace?" Merick asked.

"I'll get working on it, but for now I suggest that you go to sleep while there is no light; I cannot teach a tired mind."

They all separated and found that some corners of the building were heated, and quickly entered REM.

* * *

A/N:_ Hey, um, just for those who are going to quote the terminals from Halo 3, I am going to keep true to the fact that Mendicant Bias or MB went rampant and was destroyed. Also, that he is a ghost inside the forunner computer system trying to find a way out and is... oh wait, I'll be working on from there..._

_Anyway, just telling you._

_"I see you Reclaimer..."_

_He is not the accommodating AI we thought he was, he was in charge of telling the populations that their death gave them eternal life: This is why the Covenant believed in the Great Journey, and also he made contact with the Flood and was allured into believing that they were the rightful next step in life. It looks like he went rampant and was the reason that the Flood nearly succeeded the first time._

_-Tremble Wolf  
_


End file.
